Providing more compact and lighter weight printers is particularly desirable for printers for office and home use. Disclosed in the embodiments herein is a highly compact system in which a single integral printer module provides plural sheet handling functions in the same module and space, for reduced space requirements, sharing both copy sheet and document handling functions in the same module.
In particular, there is disclosed in the embodiment herein a compact separable module mountable on top of a printer print engine capable of providing the following different sheet functions within the same compact module: a document handling system for automatically feeding original sheets to be imaged from a stacking tray and returning them to another tray after imaging; an integral copy sheets inverter system providing (in cooperation with the print engine) a major paper path component of an automatic duplexing system within the same module; a copy sheet output path within the same module sharing the same paper path; and a copy sheet exit stacking tray on said same module for output stacking of printed copy sheets via the same copy sheet output path.
It may be seen from the disclosed embodiment that this copy sheet output stacking tray of this disclosed modular embodiment may be desirably provided at the very top of the overall printer unit, for user convenience in unobstructively observing and removing finished printed sheets. As shown, this copy sheet stacking tray may be desirably mounted superposed over both the document input and document output stacking trays of the document handler of this same module, thus not requiring any increase in the overall machine xe2x80x9cfootprint,xe2x80x9d or desk space.
Furthermore, the copy sheet output stacking tray of this plural mode module embodiment can be an alternative output tray relative to another output tray desirably provided with a different sheet stacking orientation. That is, the copy sheet output path within the module leading to the copy sheet output stacking tray can desirably have an arcuate sheet path (desirably shared with the inverter sheet path), and that copy sheet output path may desirably be different from another copy sheet output path from the printer to another, side, output, tray, so as to provide a different number of natural sheet path inversions, and thereby desirably provide a choice of sheet stacking outputs suitable for properly collated face up or face down output sheet stacking, for 1 to N or N to 1 sheet order printing, and simplex or duplex sheet printing.
The use of various modular components in printers (this term as used herein broadly includes copiers, multifunction, and other reproduction machines) is well known to those in that art. One example is shown in Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,581 issued Dec. 15, 1998 to George J. Roller, Attorney Docket No. D/96568, and other art cited therein. Others are provided in printers with print engines similar to the example shown in the embodiment herein, such as Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,835,823; 5,784,671; 5,778,284; 5884,123; and 5,881,340.
It has been well know for many years to provide a document handling module on top of copiers or other printers, for feeding image bearing sheets from a stack thereof to be imaged for one or more of electronic image storage, electronic transmission, faxing, local or remote printing, direct copying, etc,. An example is Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,989 issued Jul. 9, 1996 to Robert F. Rubscha, et al, Attorney Docket No. D/95103, and other art cited therein. Various other types of document (original sheets) feeding systems are also known in the art, such as Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,180 to Looney (D/79116). The present plural mode module and system is not limited to details of a specific document handling system.
However, such prior art document handling modules were limited in function to handling the original document sheets, per se, and did not compatibly provide the other valuable printer functions within the same modular unit and space as disclosed herein.
Further by way of background, it is know in the art, as described for example in prior Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,749,024; 5,215,298; 4,459,013; to be desirable (to provide proper page order collation) to output stack copy sheets face down if they are printed in forward or 1 to N order, and to output stack copy sheets face up if they are printed in reverse or N to 1 order. It is likewise known to provide two different output paths and output trays for this purpose, to accommodate either printing order, or for optimal simplex or duplex printing orders. It is also well known to feed the original documents with a document handler to a copier, scanner, or facsimile machine in 1 to N order, from the top of a face-up stack, as shown in various of the above-cited document handler patents, or from the bottom of a face down stack. However, some other copiers such as that described for example in Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,344, and some other scanner or multifunction systems, feed the original documents from the bottom of a face up stack, which feeds the sheets to be imaged in N to 1 order. Thus, especially for a networked printer mode of operation, it is known to be desirable to be able to accept electronic documents in either order, without having to use a copy sheet reversing type of output path inverter, i.e. to have two different copy sheet output paths, one of which provides a natural inversion in the output path relative to the other.
Various sheet inverting systems with sheet reversing chutes for duplexing are known in the art, for copies or documents, including, for example, gateless or Mylar flap gated inverters with curved baffles defining the reversing chute so as to flip the trail edge over to the inverter exit rolls. E.g., Xerox Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,017 issued Apr. 12, 1994 (D/92357).
A specific feature of the specific embodiment disclosed herein is to provide in a printing apparatus with a print engine having simplex and duplex sheet printing functions, having simplex and duplex sheet feeding paths, and having at least one sheet output path, said printing apparatus also having a document handling unit for feeding documents to be imaged, the improvement comprising: a plural function module mounted to said print engine, said plural function module containing said document handling unit, and said plural function module further containing a reversible sheet feeding path operatively communicating with said duplex sheet feeding path of said print engine to provide a sheet reversing path for said duplex sheet printing function of said print engine, said reversible sheet feeding path being outside of said print engine and within said plural function module to provide overall space savings.
Further specific features disclosed in the embodiment herein, individually or in combination, include those wherein said reversible sheet feeding path is operable unidirectionally to alternatively provide a sheet output path in said plural function module; and/or wherein said sheet output path is arcuate to provide an inverted sheet output from said sheet output path of said plural function module; and/or wherein said plural function module has an sheet output stacking tray operatively connected to said sheet output path; and/or wherein said sheet output stacking tray is exposed on top of said plural function module.
The disclosed system may be operated and controlled by appropriate operation of conventional control systems. It is well known and preferable to program and execute imaging, printing, paper handling, and other control functions and logic with software instructions for conventional or general purpose microprocessors, as taught by numerous prior patents and commercial products. Such programming or software may of course vary depending on the particular functions, software type, and microprocessor or other computer system utilized, but will be available to, or readily programmable without undue experimentation from, functional descriptions, such as those provided herein, and/or prior knowledge of functions which are conventional, together with general knowledge in the software or computer arts. Alternatively, the disclosed control system or method may be implemented partially or fully in hardware, using standard logic circuits or single chip VLSI designs.
The term xe2x80x9cprinterxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9creproduction apparatusxe2x80x9d as used herein broadly encompasses various printers and/or copiers or multifunction machines or systems, xerographic or otherwise. The term xe2x80x9csheetxe2x80x9d herein refers to a usually flimsy physical sheet of paper, plastic, or other suitable physical substrate for images, whether precut or web fed. A xe2x80x9ccopy sheetxe2x80x9d may be abbreviated as a xe2x80x9ccopyxe2x80x9d or called a xe2x80x9chardcopyxe2x80x9d. A xe2x80x9cprint jobxe2x80x9d is normally a set of related sheets, usually one or more collated copy sets copied from a set of original document sheets or electronic document page images, from a particular user, or otherwise related. A xe2x80x9csimplexxe2x80x9d document or copy sheet is one having its image and any page number on only one side or face of the sheet, whereas a xe2x80x9cduplexxe2x80x9d document or copy sheet has xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d, and normally images, on both sides, i.e., each duplex sheet is considered to have two opposing image sides or xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d even though no physical page number may be present. An xe2x80x9coriginalxe2x80x9d may of course be a previously printed copy sheet.
As to specific components of the subject apparatus or methods, or alternatives therefor, it will be appreciated that, as is normally the case, some such components are known per se in other apparatus or applications which may be additionally or alternatively used herein, including those from art cited herein. All references cited in this specification, and their references, are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for teachings of additional or alternative details, features, and/or technical background. What is well known to those skilled in the art need not be described herein.